… in fact, putting a “seal” on it!

Writing letters over a Starbucks cup of tea is usually a Sunday evening activity for me. But Friday was a holiday. So everything is running one day ahead for me!!

… who would count his gold coins and put them back, I did a similar thing today – but with fountain pens (decidedly of lesser valuable and certainly less sought after than gold coins). This month was special – I got fountain pens gifted to me by Karan Dhir at Mumbai airport, as well as DJ, PJ and the other Dhir here in Atlanta.

It meant I had to rearrange my inventory of fountain pens in the various storage cases.

Laid all of them out on the kitchen table this evening.

That would be
100 traditional fountain pens with ink barrels and cartridges
18 dip pens of the following style:
10 glass pens
5 bamboo pens
2 quill pens
1 feather pen

Somehow it tempts me to draw up a writing pad and start writing …

Now to pour the molten wax before sealing with my logo!

Every weekend I seem to be traveling somewhere. This weekend not only was I in Atlanta, additionally, Sharmila was not. Gave me a chance to sit down and pen some letters to my pen friends.

My letter to my pen friend Sinje was to go from Atlanta to her home in Switzerland. Do not know how the letter managed to get itself sent to Ho Chi Minh City first!!!

And why do they have a standardized stamp for “Missent to Ho Chi Minh City?” How often do they do that?

Ah, well! I guess let “Saigons be Saigons.” At least the letter reached her!

Recently got some over the top writing material. Handmade paper. It is actually less paper and more cloth. Made from pure Egyptian cotton with absolutely no chemical used (according to the artist who makes it). Looks like old parchment paper!

The one challenge is that because it is cloth, the cotton fibers – which give a great natural feel to the surface, also can blot ink. Which means, I cannot use my fountain pens.

Had to resort to a ball point. Used a golden Sheaffer ballpoint today.

Thank you Miriam for pointing me to bamboo pens. These may not be the same style that you grew up with in Afghanistan. I got this from China. I need to source some more of this with thinner tips. Great for calligraphy though! On the other hand, I was so excited, I extended your name to be that of a Nobel laureate!